The History of Medsin
Below is a short essay, giving a chronological account of Medsin-UK's history, formed by the synthesis of accounts from successive members and Presidents of Medsin-UK. Many thanks to all of those involved!
You can also see a potted history of Medsin here.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
Borne out of this belief, Medsin grew from a vision that students passionate about health improvement can unite to make this world a better place. In 1993 Wigs Bateman, a Sheffield medical student, learned of the International Federation of Medical Student Associations and went on to attend their conference in Alexandria, Egypt. Overwhelmed by the impressive energy and dedication of his international counterparts and stunned by the expressive atmosphere that starkly contrasted with the stifling environment of medical courses at the time, she returned to the UK determined that UK students be afforded a similarly creative forum in which they can act on issues that mean something to them.
Facing challenges in university support and uncertainty at creating a local variation in the UK, Wigs and fellow Sheffield student Jess Westall arranged a local awareness raising meeting on returning from an IFMSA meeting in 1995 with the aim of creating a team to begin running human rights and public health projects, borrowing from the IFMSA’s achievements. The meeting captured the attention of a huge number of similarly enthusiastic students. Tim Baker and Nik Jennings, also Sheffield students, travelled to Bosnia in 1996 after arduous fundraising to pay for their attendance. They came across countless impassioned medical students from all over the Balkans, overjoyed to have international visitors after long periods of isolation due to civil unrest. Rachel Lindley started a successful project Medsex training peer educators for sexual health to work in Sheffield schools. Rachel and Tim went on to co-ordinate Medsin Sheffield.
The Medical Students International Network (MedSIN) began in 1996 tying various small strands together from around the rest of the country. Nottingham and London St Georges began to run clinical exchanges with other IFMSA countries, whilst through Mike Rowson Medact began to support the development of a student network acting on global health issues; vital considering the apprehension of other institutions to encouraging the Medsin network in its growth.
Medsin began to nurture a range of community health projects: peer-led sexual health education (initially titled Medsex, later became Sexpression), students began recruiting donors to the Anthony Nolan bone marrow register through Marrow, refugee health projects began in London, whilst members began to utilise their reputable voice in campaigning for change, through the Jubilee 2000 debt campaign.
Over the years between 1996 and 2001, Medsin began to structure itself: creating a national committee to coordinate the work of the network and creating a series of local branches around the country to inspire students to engage in global health at the grassroots level. Medsin ran its first large-scale National Conference in 2000 – bringing over 300 students from across the UK to a weekend full of inspirational speakers and workshops to equip those attending with ideas for action on global health issues. Throughout all this, people learned the value of student-led projects and global health campaigns, run on limited resources and demonstrating the power of students for positive change.
2003 saw further changes to the network, with a new system of by-laws and a constitution for the network to arrange itself. The network held its first General Assembly, the decision-making body of the network, created a new identity for itself through brandishing a new Medsin-UK logo, and promoted its inclusive nature by expanding to recruit non-medical students. In 2004 the network held its first Training New Trainers event, allowing those attending to become peer educators in a range of areas for the betterment of Medsin’s operations.
Medsin achieved charity status in 2005, demonstrating its significant efforts to alleviate injustice and broadened capacity for organisational management. The extraordinary growth in such a short period was celebrated in 2007, when Medsin held its 10th birthday party and launched the Alumni network: a chance for graduates from Medsin to share expertise and experience to newer members in the network. A new website was also launched; significantly improving the network’s ability to communicate with each other and partner organisations.
2006 also saw the creation of a new force in Medsin: the Global Health Advocacy Project (GhAP) came into being, a student group aiming to challenge the entrenched health inequalities through political action. Members became politically engaged and went on to foster several successful campaigns from issues such as the democratic process of the World Health Organisation, through to access to healthcare for refused asylum seekers, in addition to responding to a range of governmental consultations. Medsin itself reflected these new developments in activism for the network, with the creation of a Campaigns Director on the National Committee to coordinate the advocacy wing in Medsin.
Medsin hosted the IFMSA European Regional Meeting (EuRegMe) in April 2006 in Leicester, which brought together its European partner organisations to educate and inspire advocacy on obesity, tobacco and mental health issues.
Medsin then held the August Meeting of the IFMSA in 2007, in Canterbury bringing hundreds of students from all across the world to the UK for a week full of workshops and sessions in global and public health. The theme ‘Access to Medicines’ was well covered by the organising team of the conference and has since been hailed as a great educational resource by NGOs including Oxfam.
Our campaigning efforts grew in strength in 2007 and 2008 as Medsin members took to the streets to demand an end to the privatisation of the NHS, joining thousands of others in an impressive call to politicians for “public health not private wealth!” Meanwhile, the Medsin Global Health Advocacy Project released a report which, through usage of the Freedom of Information Act, revealed responses to a government consultation proposing to charge refused asylum seekers for primary healthcare. The report went on to win public and political attention, and eventually prevented the removal of free healthcare services initially tabled by politicians.
The following year saw the emergence of Medsin’s global health magazine, a themed issue made available in conjunction with Medsin’s bi-annual conferences. The magazine has become an opportunity for members to explore their interests in global health, whilst promoting the actions of students through activities around the country.
What will the future hold for our student movement for global health? We now have at our disposal an impressive network of thousands, tackling global and local health inequalities from the grassroots level right up to the global determinants of health and healthcare, through an engagement in the political process by which health is shaped. As we increase our presence at universities around the country, and build further partnerships with notable external partners, our force for change will continue to grow stronger. Each year brings further changes and revolutions in student engagement in health; the barriers to our ambitions are merely the boundaries of our own dreams. We stand back in the present day with pride, knowing our efforts in Medsin have built a movement that can truly struggle for global health justice and a fairer world.
This chronological account was formed by the synthesis of accounts from successive members and Presidents of Medsin-UK. Many thanks to all of those involved!
A potted history of Medsin
1950s-1970s
- IFMSA is formed
- British Medical Students Association is founding member
- First IFMSA GA in London
- Rex Crossley from UK is first president of IFMSA
- 1954-5 Alan Gilmour, UK is president of IFMSA
- 1957-8 Bernard Hill, UK is IFMSA Standing Committee Director for Population
- 1959-60 Graham Lister, UK is president of IFMSA (and several other UK officials).
- 1960 Exchange Officers Meeting in Edinburgh
- 1969 Geoffrey Lloyd and Bob Graham President and Vice-President of IFMSA
- 1970 General Secretariat of IFMSA moved to London
- 1970 President, Sec Gen and Treasurer all from UK
- 1971-1973 ? BMSA dissolves
- 1973 British Medics Working Party attends IFMSA meeting as observers
1980s
- Nothing known of UK involvement in IFMSA
- IFMSA struggles to survive…
1990s
- 1991 UK has a member of IFMSA - National Association of Medical Students (NAMS) International Officer reports to IFMSA that UK cannot offer exchanges
- 1991 International Officer – Rob Hadden, Oxford
- 1993-1994 Wigs Bateman attends IFMSA Conference in Alexandria, Egypt and decides we should be involved…
- 1993-1994 Jess Westall, Tim Baker, Rachel Lindley and Wigs start a few local projects in Sheffield
- 1993-1994 Medact and Mike Rowson also developing student groups – UCL and Georges
- 1993-1994 Nottingham set up exchanges
- 1995 IFMSA has an official from the UK - Liaison Officer to WHO Nick Shenker
1996-97
Sheffield, Georges, UCL and Nottingham students get together…
…MedSIN (Medical Students International Network) was born
1997-98
- MM97 in Slovenia
- AM98 in Egypt (pictured left)
- Became a candidate member of IFMSA at AM97 in Athens
- First president Wigs Bateman (Sheffield)
1999
- Small national conference at UCL
- UK Gained Full Membership of IFMSA at AM99 in Mexico
- Committee Co-ordinators Arti Maini (Georges) and Rachel Lindley (Sheffield) Secretary – Tim Baker (Sheffield) – Pete (current national committee)’s older brother!
1999-2000
- National Conference in Sheffield Committee: Coordinators: Vic Wykes (UCL) and Mike Moneypenny (Dundee) Treasurer: Chris Hopkins (UCL) News: Andy Khodakabus (Liverpool)
- IFMSA Training Support Division Director is Zana Khan from UK
- Jubilee 2000 campaign: Global chain reaction. Sarah Finer
- MM2000 in Finland
- AM2000 in Portugal
2000-2001
- First big national conference in Edinburgh (>300 people)
- Chris Hopkins coordinator
- MedSIN grows – 18 Member Branches
- MM01 in Malta
- AM01 in Denmark – wrote MedSIN Action plan for restructure
2001-2002
- National Conference in Cambridge
- First full national committee elected
- MY PLESHA 2 – Sexpression conference
- First big project conference
- Homed National Conference
- Training Conference in Manchester
- Marrow started
- MM02 in Yugoslavia
- AM02 in Taiwan
2002-2003
- New committee elected
- Birmingham National Conference
- Cardiff International Health Conference
- Medsin-BMA Joint Training Day
- MM2003 in Estonia
- AM 2003 in The Netherlands – Emily Spry (Georges) elected president IFMSA
2003-2004
- New committee elected
- Medsin formalised with Constitution and Bylaws
- First Medsin-UK General Assembly
- New Logo
- Name altered (Medsin-UK, opening up to non- medical students)
- Nottingham National conference
- London GH Conference
- MM04 in Venezuela
- AM04 in Macedonia
2004-2005
- New committee elected
- Branch Resource Pack
- New Website
- Logo made legal (grey cross!)
- First UK TNT (Training New Trainers)
- Glasgow National Conference
- Peninsula GH Conference
- MM05 Turkey
- AM05 in Egypt
- Teddy Bear Hospital first started in UK at Bart's
2005-2006
- New committee elected
- Medsin-UK gets charity status
- Leeds National Conference
- London GH Conference
- Leicester hosts IFMSA European Regional Meeting
- MM06 - Chile
- AM06 - Serbia - Won the bid to host UK AM07!
2006-2007
- New committee elected
- Medsin’s 10th Birthday Party
- Alumni launch
- Campaigns Team formed
- Hosted our first Campaigns Day
- Bristol National Conference
- Newcastle GH Conference
- First ever Regional Conferences
- MM07 - Australia
- AM07 - UK
2006-2007
- [New committee elected]
- Bristol National Conference
- Newcastle GH Conference
- MM07 - Australia
- AM07 - UK Medsin hosts the August meeting of the IFMSA - an August never to forget!!
2007-2008
- [New committee elected]
- Dundee National Conference
- Oxford GH Conference
- MM08 - Mexico
- AM08 - Jamaica
2008-2009
- President - Helen Preston
- Vice-President for Branches - Erica Pool
- Vice-President for Projects - Mark Prince
- Vice-President for External Affairs - Vanessa Jessop
- Secretary - Gabriella Bidwell
- Treasurer - Mori Mansouri
- Communications and Technology Director - Matt Brandwood
- Publicity Director - Kiri Dyer
- Campaigns Director - Jonny Currie
- Training Director - Sarah Phipps
Last updated on Thursday 14 April 2011 at 03:50.
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